Prosecutors refute Roger Stone's claim that Russia didn't hack DNC

Federal prosecutors directly refuted for the first time Friday out-of-the-mainstream arguments lodged by Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of President Donald Trump, that Russia may not have been responsible for the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee.

Stone, fighting charges that he obstructed the House's Russia probe, argued in a filing earlier this month that FBI investigators relied on a private firm — CrowdStrike — to assess that Russia was behind the hacks and failed to properly preserve DNC servers, an argument that Trump has regularly echoed on Twitter and in public statements.

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To support his argument, Stone submitted affidavits from two former intelligence officials who agreed that Russia was an unlikely source for the files, citing metadata, time stamps and even time zone data as evidence that the removal of DNC files may have originated in the United States. Stone argued that if the evidence Russia was behind the hacks was faulty, the search warrants used to ultimately indict him.

But prosecutors, who revealed they obtained 18 search warrants on Stone to support their charges against him, rebutted the arguments forcefully Friday, taking aim at the two former intelligence officials he cited.

"Even if those claims were correct and well supported (which they are not), they would not come close to suggesting that any statements about Russia conducting the hacks were false," wrote prosecutors in the office of Washington’s U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu, who assumed oversight of the case after special counsel Robert Mueller began winding down his work.

"For example, allegations concerning the time stamps and the time signatures would be equally consistent with Russia intelligence officers using a thumb drive to transfer hacked materials among themselves after the hack took place," prosecutors wrote. "Similarly, the time zone analysis is wholly consistent with the fact that the victims were in the Eastern Daylight Time Zone, rather than providing any information regarding the location of the perpetrators."

Ultimately, they argue, Stone presented no evidence "that suggests that Russia was not involved in the hack."

And prosecutors also emphasized that their search warrants for Stone would be valid even if his claims about the origin of the hacks were true.

"[R]eferences to Russia’s role played little if any role in the various probable cause determinations, which were primarily based on Stone’s communications with individuals and entities that took credit for the hacks or were disseminating the stolen materials," prosecutors wrote.

Prosecutors indicated they obtained their first search warrant against Stone in August 2017, more than a year before his indictment and they obtained another 17 through February 2019. Of those, 12 were signed off on by Washington’s federal district court chief judge Beryl Howell, three others were approved by other D.C.-based judges, and three more were backed by judges in New York and Florida.

Fourteen of the search warrants requests indicate that Stone was in touch with hackers — known by the moniker Guccifer 2.0 — and that Guccifer 2.0 ultimately claimed responsibility for the DNC hacks. And they also indicated that WikiLeaks disseminated the hacked emails, and that Stone communicated with WikiLeaks.

"Each affidavit submits that, based on those communications, there was probable cause to believe that evidence related to the DNC hack would be found in the specified location," they wrote. "Many of these affidavits contain additional evidence alleging probable cause to believe evidence will be found of violations of additional crimes."

Prosecutors also said they had probable cause Stone may have committed other crimes: accessory after the fact, misprision of a felony, conspiracy, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and foreign contribution bans.